


Deal

by M_O_R_D_O_R_K



Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: Adoption, F/F, F/M, Gen, General Grillby, Grillby takes forever to get in here, Long Time Period, M/M, Multi, Orphan - Freeform, Teen Parenting, War, gender neutral reader, zaza reader
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-05-06
Updated: 2016-10-25
Packaged: 2018-06-06 19:22:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 5,970
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6766690
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/M_O_R_D_O_R_K/pseuds/M_O_R_D_O_R_K
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The world went to hell, life for monsters was hell for centuries. You did what you could for your daughter.<br/>After Centuries of enslavement and decades of racism and discrimination things are looking up.<br/>Your daughter is finally able to go to a public school and travel, while your restaurant is booming with business.<br/>And then the monsters of Mount Ebott were freed and accumulated into society.<br/>You knew you'd have to close up the deal, but after centuries of looking out for the kid you don't want to give her to a monster you don't know. But a deal's and deal.</p><p>You really have a bone to pick with that skeleton though.</p><p>--Bad at summaries, you take care of Grillby's daughter above ground for centuries, when he and everyone else are freed, you aren't sure you can give her back.--</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. The Meeting

**Author's Note:**

> A cute lil' idea I had that involves monster!reader becoming mama to a lil'fire elemental.

Wandering through the forests you realized two facts, the war had taken a turn for the worst and you couldn't find your clan; the latter making the former fact all the more terrifying. You were a lightning elemental; your clan traditionally inhabited the space closest to the heavens, a top Mount Ebott. However, with the war breaking out the King requested all able bodied monsters to enlist, and your traditional clan sticks together no matter what.

You are proof of that.

You, the lightning elemental child of 1,675 years old a monster...who looks so strange for a monster. The monster who looks human. Your features were nothing like that of your clan, well save for your third eye and typical glasses worn by your clan, lightning elementals have such horrible eye sight. Even when you came into creation your clan stood by you, they protected you when humans turned against monsters, defended your honor when other monsters accused you of looking human to save yourself, and you suppose they are somehow saving you now, having dragged you far from the nest in case of human attack.

But it wasn't fair! You could defend yourself well enough, you were almost 1,700 for stars' sake. You understand their concern, seeing as your magic isn't really accessible at all times. When the Royal Guard came to take able bodied monsters they ran a training course, everyone in the clan was hopeful you would be chosen, you'd made a great spy for the Guard and be able to help end this war once and for all. However, the King upon realizing your inability to count on your magic and the fact that you would have to disable yourself, by taking off your glasses to cause a headache to close your third eye for prolong amounts of time, deemed it an unnecessary risk for someone of your age.

You had been angry at that, not at King Asgore of course but at yourself, you could have helped aid in the ward effort, but your magic was just too unstable, outside of your body. You felt useless, and you still are. You can't connect with your magic to find your clan, and it's getting dark and colder as the night falls. You need to take shelter soon, who knows what's going to happen in these woods now that the war has broken out.

After walking for a few more moments you notice the smell of smoke. Smoke means fire and fire meant a camp. Wither monster of human you are sure you could get them to let you stay, if you just explain being separated from your family due to the war. You make up your mind and continue to follow the smell; it takes another ten minutes until you find the source. However, what you find isn't what you're expecting.

A small fire elemental is huddled at the base of a tree near a fallen stuffed animal...she appeared to be crying, or at least if the smoke streaks rising from her face are anything to go by...the elemental not the toy. Sighing you consider the fact that she's been crying for about ten minutes and no one besides you has shown, you know she is in the same predicament as you are. This is bad, you can't just leave the younger monster by themselves it's too dangerous, but you also didn't have much experience with children. With being the youngest in you clan you were the child and with your unfortunate ailment and the timing, not many monsters outside of your clan wanted you around their children. But that toy gave you an idea.

You stepped closer to the little flame, she hadn't noticed you, you could see now that she wore a lilac dress with a darker stripe in the middle of the torso, so you were right she was a child. Though the stripe indicated she was closer to being an adolescent, shoots you hoped your plan will still work. As you get closer the child still takes no notice, so you are able to get your hands on her toy. It appears to be a small cat with very long limbs, you grab the arms in your hands and test the movements of making it dance. 

"Hey there, little flame! Air out your eyes and look upon my dance!" you put on a ridiculous voice and made the toy cat dance before the child's face.

Hearing your voice the child's head snapped up so fast you were almost sure they'd light the tree they were against on fire. Just as you were about to say something else, or rather the toy car, the child leapt at you. You..were shocked, quite literally, and so was the child.

"Are you okay?! I'm sorry, I can't control it!" you apologize to the child hoping to all the stars that you hadn't damaged them. You hover over the child trying to find any injury, but the reaction you get in return is the child looking up at you and making grabbing motions. You assume that means they weren't harmed by your magic.

'Oh she wants the toy.' You think as you go to give back the toy, the child takes no notice and keeps making the motion.

"Uh..." you honestly have no idea what else this could mean, children do talk right?

"Up..." that is the shaky response you get from the little flame. Oh, okay now you get it, you reach down and pick up the younger elemental, keeping the bottom of her dress between your arm and her legs, who clings to you.

You look around and notice it's gotten considerably darker, but you aren't as cold as you had been, guess you have the child to thank for that. Though that won't last for long, flame elementals tend to cool down when they sleep so you need to find shelter soon.

"Hey little flame, we need to find somewhere to stay for the night, do you know any place?" what do you even say to children? How do you talk to kids?

You guess whatever you said was okay, because you receive a small nod and a hand pointing. Giving a nod of acknowledgement you set off in the direction, thankful that it had been a flame elemental you found, their light helping you see in this darkness. After a while you and the little flame are at the opening of a cave. Looking at the little elemental they nod to you that it's okay. How would they know, is this what kids do; go exploring in caves? Well, honestly you would've too but you lived on top of the mountain not many caves but a lot of cliffs to climb and jump from with older sparks.

You entered the cave with the little flame still in your arms. You take note of the sound of dripping water and begin to look for the source before deciding where you both should sleep for the night. A stalactite in the upper middle of the cave is the source, the puddle under is very small and shouldn't be a problem tonight. But you won't take that chance with the fire elemental, so you found a high platform in the cave a few feet away. About to ask the elemental if this is okay for them for the night, you notice they are asleep. Guess talking will wait till morning. Setting the child on the platform against the wall you follow taking the spot near the edge. Hopefully this kid doesn't move too much.

The smell of smoke is what wakes you up in the morning. Shooting up ready to hear the screaming of your clan and the sound of aggressive humans, you wait for a moment before remembering the events of yesterday. Your clan is missing and you found a fire elemental...their crying again aren't they, yup that's where the smoke's coming from.

"Little flame, what's wrong?" you sighed trying to meet their eyes.

"Daddy, I miss my daddy." Is the response you're met with, but their crying doesn't stop.

"...Um..Do you remember where you last saw him, I could...I could take you there?" there's a plan, if the child could remember you could bring them homes and hopefully find someone who heard something of your clan.

Alas, your plan hits a wall as the little flame shook their head.

"He's fighting, I haven't seen him for a while." she states. Oh, great maybe they know how to connect to their village.

"Oh, do...do you...can you...are you linked to your village?" you noticed the crying got worse at this and soot has started to accumulate around her eyes. Using the sleeves of you grey dress to wipe them away, you give the little flame a shaky smile.

A shake of the head tells you this is gonna be a long day, at least the crying is dying down. Ok, nevermind they just started up again...shoots what do you do?!? What do you do? Would a hug help? Worth a shot, so you gently/awkwardly wrapped your arms around the child to soothe them. Not quite sure why but you started to sway gently with the flame in your arms, they started to calm down. It was a few minutes before the smoke streaks subsided.

After a few more minutes you realized they've fallen asleep, you can't really leave such a small monster by themselves while they are asleep, what if humans were nearby? Though would it be different with you around? You can't even use your magic properly...but you do look human if you closed you third eye, you could protect her by just making up a story if it came to that.

"I guess we sleep for today," you sighed and looked to the monster child in your arms "goodnight little flame." With that you fell asleep; hoping when you woke up you could cover ground to finding this child's home and hopefully your clan.

Unlike the day before you wake up by yourself, no crying, and no smoke. With the new light and lack of distraught child you are able to get a look at the cave. It's fairly big, you think King Asgore may even be able to fit and not get his horns caught in the ceiling, space wise it's only a handful of feet wide. There's a higher ledge above the one you are now occupying. Best use that to hold the flame and yourself if water gets in, maybe food if you stay long enough to need to store food, you hope not though. Upon that thought of food you realize you and the child haven't eaten in at least a day, you'll need to change that. You take a glance at the child, still asleep, will you be quick enough getting food? You should be, shouldn't be too hard to find echo-berries. There has to be a water source nearby if there's dripping in the cave.

Getting up from the ledge, you make sure the child is in no danger of falling. Once satisfied you leave in search of a quick mean. Leaving the cave you notice that the sky was over cast, not a good sign, a storm would weaken the little flame and would make it impossible for the two of you to search for a monster village. However, something about the storm makes your magic spark; this wasn't going to be a natural storm. You'd better find enough food for a day or two just in case. You look a little ways away from the cave and find that there is a small pond near it, luckily for you two there are echo flowers in this pond, unluckily they have no berries. Just as you are about to leave you catch a passing conversation.

"...are going back to hell where the..." the flower repeats. You freeze, humans were here, violent humans, you can't chance this you need to find food and take little flame somewhere else. But first you hum a soft tune for the flower to replace that awful conversation with.

When you get back to the cave with your forage: some acorns, a few berries, and you stumbled on some wild carrots; little flame was awake fiddling with her toy.

"Morning little flame, I got us some food...'s not much but it's food." Stars you are really uncomfortable with kids.

She looks up at you and makes a grabbing motion again. Taking notice of the slight gloom and droop in her flames, you let out a silent breath and walk over to pick her up. Do all fire elementals need so much contact or is it just a kid thing...but then again you have no clue what she's been through, you literally met two nights ago.

"I'm (yn), what should I call you little flame?" you ask as you gently sway carrying the monster to the foraged food.

"Cinders." Cinders? That's....that's...that's really too adorable.

"That's a very pretty name, Cinders." you smiled at the child in your arms. She gave you a smile back, seeing her mouth actually break apart and create a jagged 'U' shape reminded you of some of your friends. You guess elementals really weren't too different from one another.

"I...I think (y/n) is a pretty...name too!" Her flames brightened a bit before they somber back.

"'s gonna storm isn't it Cinders?" You ask even thought you already know, still your fears are confirmed when Cinders gives you a meek nod.

Setting her down then taking a seat next to her you watch her fiddle with the carrots. Anxious little flame.

"Guess we have time to get to know each other and think of a plan." You offer the handful of berries to Cinders. She stares at you before grabbing them and using her magic to roast them, before eating a few and handing the rest back. Oh, you completely forgot you needed magic to cook regular food, for it to be edible for younger monsters, shoots. At least Cinders knew fire magic.

"...Can....could I....I mean, may I ask you a question?" Such a proper young monster, though your clan was pretty wild even on their best behaviour, down right feral on their worst, so maybe other monsters were very civil and proper.

"Ask as many as ya' want little flame, we've got time." You say gesturing towards the opening of the cave.

"You are a...a monster right," you nod expecting this kind of question, you did get it a lot "oh...what kind? I've never seen a monster like you before...you look so strange...OH, I'm sorry that was very rude of me! You...you..what..I" you offer her more of the magic roasted berries to save her, she accepts this.

"'s okay, I'm an elemental like you...but more...electric, and as for my form well it just...happened." You finishing by popping a berry into your mouth...you now get why she handed them back, stars she needed to work on her magic...but who were you to talk.

Uh oh, she noticed your cringe.

"It's okay, daddy says I need to work more on my cooking magic. It's just really hard, and he can't really help." Cinders looked away, oh shoots her eyes were steaming again.

"Ah...'s fine...I mean I''m not any better, I can't even use my magic regularly, so next to me your pretty great." You said popping a few more berries.

She looks up surprised; well a lot of monsters are when you tell them you really can't use your magic.

"But...but you seem so old." The look on her face was the best, she looked liked she wanted to cry after catching herself, "I...I..I...I mean not old..well yes old....no..I..older than...." you couldn't help it you had to laugh. Cinders looked close to tears but hearing your laugh ring throughout the cave seemed to calm down a bit.

"A lot of monsters have trouble with their magic from time to time, it works out s 's fine." You say and without really thinking you pat her head.

"Oh. So, it's okay that my magic isn't the best because it's normal to not be naturally good at magic?" you nod, also glad to know what age you were actually working with, you were both pretty close in age, so hopefully talking to her as an equal was okay? You've no clue.

"That's good, I thought daddy was just being nice." She nods to herself. "Just need practice." she mutters.

And you spent the next few hours talking to Cinders, learning about each other. You learned that Cinders was 1,032 her birthday was in a few months, she was really excited by that fact. You found out that Cinders lived in a camp for the soldiers and family of the monster army, so her dad was only able to visit her before every battle. Cinders only really talked about her dad or practicing magic, from the sound of it she hadn't had many kids to play with in the camp.

She probably got lost in the forest trying to find something to entertain herself with.

Cinders also learned a lot about you and your life, she thought you were really cool when you told her about the dares you and the older sparks set up for each other, though you quickly told her all of it was stupid and you were all lucky no one got injured. No need to put bad ideas into the fire of the sweet flame's mind.

Story after story went by and the berries Cinders had roasted disappeared between the two of you. Leaving the acorns and wild carrots, well at least you have food for the morning.

You look up to the opening and notice the ground is a bit darker that before...must've started to rain. You tap Cinders' hand and nod towards the door; she understands and gets up with you. Cinders picks up the forage and you take her toy. Both of you walk over to the platform and you put her cat on the one closest to you, then you bend down and pick up Cinders. She's just so small for her age, guess it's stresses from the war, she barely had a century to live before it broke out. You climb up after her and move her toy to the higher one.

"We're gonna stay up here tonight, don't know how long it will rain...or if it will flood y'know." Cinders shook at the thought but nodded and let you lift her onto the next tier. You grabbed the food from her and put it down on the first ledge, before climbing up with her. The second ledge was a lot smaller than the first but it would have to do. You make sure Cinders is comfortable and secure against the wall, no chance of falling, and you scan once more for any dripping water sounds near you. None, except the one in the back that in now more frequent. Good stay that way.

You bid Cinders goodnight, and the two of you went into a weak sleep.

Shoots what is with this little flame and waking you up in the morning...or should you consider this night? Cinders is whimpering next to you...what happened?

You shoot up, is she okay, was it the berries? Does she have a stomachache; was there a leak you missed?

A roar of thunder interrupted your inner monologue, and elicited another whimper from the fire elemental.

'oh, she's afraid of big brother...makes sense thunder means a storm and she is fire.' You think, not everyone could be a lightning elemental raised to believe thunder was you big brother. How to fix this..maybe a story like the elders would do? Yea worth a shot.

"Little flame?" you call out brushing her hair gently. She looks up and makes the tell tale sign for you to hold her. And you do, you hold her close and pat her flaming hair until her sobs and whimpers die down.

"Would you like to hear a story, little flame? 's one that the elder sparks used to tell the clan on nights like this." you whisper to the scared flame. She nods weakly, a silent hiccup erupts from her.

"Long ago there were two gods...two brother Zap and Burth, they had been very close so close the nothing could come between them. One day Zap had found his soul mate among the mortal beings below. He talked to the mortal every day and every night he regaled the endeavors to his brother. Burth could see how in love his younger brother had become and told him to trust his soul. Zap wasn't sure he could, for leaving the heavens to be with a mortal would leave Burth all alone.

He couldn't do that to his brother, and so he spent many years with the mortal during the day and with Burth at night. Though the years did nothing to the brothers they had begun to take their toll on the mortal. The mortal grew weaker and frailer with each passing year. And on the mortal's last living day Zap stood with sparks in his eyes spending the remaining time with his love, and he realized then why Burth wanted him to be with the mortal, their lives are fleeting, but the pain is not. The day soon past and the mortal's essence left their body. Zap couldn't help himself and reached to touch it, to steal it away, keep his love forever.

What he didn't expect was to be merged with it. To form a new being, but that's what he did, together Zap and his lover made the first lightning elemental. Confused and new to the world the elemental sent a out that ripped through the heavens. Burth who was watching sent out a song for the crying new born soul, to soothe their pain and sorrow.

And at first it only made the cry louder...until the elemental realized that the song was for them, sent by someone who cared. Their big brother Burth. The song was a promise of his love and guidance. Burth just wished for them to be happy. And ever since on storms like these, it's Burth reminding lightning elementals know that he loves us and that we deserve to be happy. Unfortunately the only song he knows is very loud and may seem scary at times, but if you listen you can hear the love." you finish with a small laugh.

No response came from the young monster, but you could clearly see she was still awake.

"Sorry...I probably didn't tell it right. The elders are better at it." You look away frowning, you thought it would help; maybe you weren't getting better at handling kids.

"...so Burth is just...showing his love? He's not...an..angry or...scary?" only now did you realize Cinders stopped whimpering and shaking. You give a nod and she seems to reflect on this.

"Oh...I see...can you let him know I'm sorry? I...I...didn't know." You see she's nodding off again.

"Don't worry he doesn't mind, he's used to it." Smiling you pat her head to lull her to sleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Some of you may wonder why I didn't use Fuku as Grillby's daughter, and that's because nothing in game explicitly state she's his daughter or even related. She and Heats are going to just happen to be other fire elementals who live in the underground.


	2. Discovery

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hahaha I'm a piece of shit tbh. I forgot I wasn't just writing for my self and had published this ;;

The storm didn’t let up for three days. It hadn’t been too bad, you rationed the food to last a while after you woke up on the first morning. You had seven acorns and two carrots, so one acorn and a third of a carrot would have to do until the storm let up. You had tried to give your share of carrot to Cinders but she refused saying it wasn’t fair and that you need energy too.

Aside from savoring the food and sleeping, you two spent a lot more time talking and getting to know each other. On the second day Cinders had told you two important facts about herself.

“Hey! (y/n). What’s the Queen’s favourite type of precipitation?” Cinders asked giving you her jagged smile from your lap.

“Um…I don’t know what?” You swear if it wasn’t raining Cinders probably could have lit the whole cave with light with her smile.

“Reign!” she giggled. …Did she just pun?

“Heh good one Cinders.” You say giving her a chuckle and your own less jagged smirk.

“Actually I lied, Queen Toriel prefers the snow. She says it’s really beautiful and new likes the look it gives the land.” She sobers a bit while saying this and turns forward.

“Oh really? How’d you know that?” you ask playing with her hair a bit, it’s a lot different than the hair of the older sparks who let you play with and style their hair. But that’s to be expected Cinders was made of fire not of electricity. Whereas spark hair will draw towards anything, fire seems to wrap around whatever draws near.

“She told me once after class. It was snowing outside she sat with me because I couldn’t play in it with the other children….it’s still water so it still hurts.” That gets you to still.

“Wait you know the Queen? Cinders what rank is your dad?” You had a guess but if you were right maybe finding home would be easier.

“uh…daddy is a general. He works directly with the King and Queen. They’re very nice.” She said picking at the bottom of her dress, it was starting to get a bit dirty around the bottom.

“Wait! Your dad is General Hellfire!” You exclaim catching the small elemental off guard, stunned by your loudness she just nods.

“No kidding!? I know where your camp is, some of the other sparks and I found it on accident a couple of times.” You say thinking back to the day General Hellfire found you four, stars were you all terrified.

What else would you have been, you literally found the Royal camp with the one elemental that looks too much like a human for their own good. And General Hellfire wasn’t exactly known for being a softie, what would he do to someone like you? Answer, give you all a sigh and usher you back home to your nest. He caught you all several more times and each time the same as the last, a tired sigh at childish antics and a silent walk towards the elemental nest.

He was so cool…well not literally. General Hellfire demanded respect from all those around him even the royal family, with only his presence. He was a monster of few words, and you liked that. It made his gestures more meaningful. So when with each walk back to the nest his eyes rested solely on you for a majority of the trip you couldn’t help but let your soul flutter. Even though the General was probably just taking in the anomaly before hand, a monster with a human enough looking appearance not very common. He probably had ideas to use you in the Royal Guard; you suppose that’s why even the King himself came to the recruiting day, to see the monster who looked human himself. But you were young; it wasn’t weird for you to have a school girl crush on the century’s, maybe even the millienam’s, hottest monster.

Cinders brightened at the thought of going home.

“So you know which way to go?” she asked excitedly.

Uh oh, you didn’t want to disappoint her but you weren’t going to lie to the monster either.

“No, I got turned around, but you have a link to your camp right?” she gave a nod in response and went to say something.

“Ok, that’s good, we’re pretty far from my nest which is close to your camp. So, you’re probably just out of the link’s range. When we get closer you’ll be able to feel it again.” You say effectively cutting off her protests.

She didn’t seem too sure but agreed none the less. With a plan in mind you two continued to talk into the night. Knowing now that Cinders dad was General Hellfire made all the stories much more hilarious. The following day was much the same.

Waking up the next morning you notice the storm had passed. Getting from the ledge was a bit difficult; you had to take more care into not waking up Cinders due to the confined space. After five minutes you finally managed to get down from both ledges without waking the flame up. Stretching a bit you walked out of the cave and took a look around. Everything was drenched, but the clouds looked empty for the most part.

Making up your mind you came to the conclusion to leave with Cinders to find home. You walked back into the cave to wake the fire elemental up. She woke up with little resistance; you both ate what little food was left. Cinders gathered her toy and waited for you to clear up any sign of you both being there. Which aside from the food had been nothing, but checking to make sure no one could tell two monsters had been in the cave couldn’t hurt, especially in a war zone. Looking back towards the small flame elemental you nod before scooping her up in your arms. It’ll be faster than walking at her pace.

When you step out of the cave you feel the muggy air and slight wind, checking to make sure Cinders was doing ok with these conditions you start your trek up the mountain.

“Doesn’t make sense to go left or right. M’ clan’s nest is near the top of the mountain, that way we’ll find your village connection first you lead us toward it, and someone helps me back to my nest. Win-Win.” You explain to the smaller elemental.

You walked for the better half of the day, stopping only to let your arms have a rest every now and then from carrying Cinders, until Cinders jolted to the left.

“There” she exclaimed as she pointed left.

This followed for about an hour, two lefts, past the birch tree, a right, one more left. Until you found yourselves at the entrance of the camp…if you could call it that.

Really it was more like the entrance to destruction. Tents and structures were collapsed, some looked burned. There were scorch marks on the ground, clearly not done by any flame elemental…they weren’t clean, they were jagged like those of your clan. Your clan had been here but what had happened? Oh stars…there’s dust and blood everywhere.

Human attack. Humans must’ve attacked the royal family and your clan came to help. But where was everyone?

Cinders was the first to get out of shock and squirmed to get down from your hold. You released her as she frantically searched around yelling for those missing. You had to stop her, this isn’t right. Running up to her you covered her mouth and held her again.

“Cinders, don’t. We don’t know what happened or if anyone bad is still around. Neither of us has stable magic, we can’t protect ourselves if humans come back.” You whisper harshly to the panicked child. She whimpers in response and you almost instinctively you coo to calm her. She calms and you begin looking around the fallen camp sullenly.

There aren’t any human bodies, both a blessing and a curse. It’s something the frightened flame doesn’t need to see however it doesn’t bode well for the royal family or your clan. As you continue you notice the scorch marks become more frequent, the humans seemed to have attacked from behind, of course they would. You notice some of the scorch marks are rounder, less jagged, more controlled. General Hellfire had fought here.

“Daddy…” comes Cinders weak whimper at the sight of something a little ways off. You coo again to ease the child as you approach the object in question.

It’s a shield…General Hellfire’s. Cinders begins to sob and wail. You smother her smoke in a hug, your clothes maybe ruined but the alternative of being found by any strangling humans is far worse. Cinders tires herself out shortly after she began, the kid’s been crying so much in the past few days with barely any energy to begin with. You decide the best case of action is to salvage what you can and head up the mountain. Even if your clan was gone you doubt humans would go up the mountain after attacking the royal family and most if not all of the lightening elemental clan.

You’re able to find a good sized bag, it has rips and tears, and it’s a bit dirty but it’d hold what you find well enough…hopefully. You place Cinders’ toy cat in it, taking care to preserve one thing of the elemental’s life before. Luckily or not an array of purple one or two stripe shirts, sweaters, and dresses were covering the ground near the back of the camp. Vaguely wondering if all children wore this colour in the royal camp but dismissing it when most came up to be about the size Cinders would be.

“These are your’s aren’t they kid?” you say mostly to the dimming sky, as you place two long shirts, one heavy sweater, and a dress into the pack. You find some rations that were untouched in the ambush. Not much but more than you’d both had in that cave. Before making your way back up front you take one last look at the shield. You look to the sleeping elemental in your arms and sigh.

“You owe me so much.” You laid the bag off of your back and place Cinders unto it propped up by a fallen tent. Her flames manage to evaporate the remaining droplets from falling unto her.

You look at the shield and then look at the pack, it won’t fit without damaging it further…however if you could find a spare blanket or two, you’d be able to make a sling for it and also save space in the bag for food. So you go back to Cinders with shield in hand, and maneuver her to lean on you as you place the bag unto your back, pick her and the shield up.

It’s heavy and an awkward hold, but you never know when a shield will come in handy. To your luck you find a few blankets up front that a in good condition in one of the half crumbled tents, one is very thick and would hold steady during winter and the other is little but a spare sheet. Both will serve two purposes though.

Having salvaged items from the fallen camp, you look around in despair. You know going up that mountain will mean an empty nest more than likely. But you need clothes of your own if you are going to last through winter. And you aren’t entirely comfortable in the fallen camp, humans could still come back to burn it down at any time. And there’s no telling what they’d do to two defenseless monsters.

Something awakens in you at that. A surge of primal protectiveness. That’s right you aren’t the only one who lost family. The little monster in your arms lost her’s too. You’d have to be her family now, protect her at all costs. You’d carry on for her, and so you did. Off to the top of the mountain.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I've found this story again and I'm in the process of rewriting a lot of it. Hope to continue.


End file.
